Emraan Hashmi’s quest for a flat

Emraan Hashmi might not be such a talented actor, but he does have a penchant for raking up a huge controversy, for the right or wrong reasons. This time he has succeeded in unleashing an unprecedented media frenzy – there were spate of TV debates, articles in newspapers and feverish comments in the blog universe. The media frenzy took off when he was heard claiming that the Nibana Co-operative society located in Mumbai’s plush Pali Hill area refused to grant him a NOC to purchase a flat because he is a Muslim. “Do I look like a terrorist?” he asked in a flamboyant manner at a press conference where his mentor Mahesh Bhatt flanked him. Of course, he doesn’t.

As the case involves a high profile Bollywood actor, the media establishment pounced on the story like a swarm of hungry vultures. Here was an irrevocable proof of the fact that the majority community is racist – that seemed to be inference of all the celebrities who descended in the TV studios to debate the issue. Shabana Azmi made intermittent appearances on many TV channels talking about the difficulties that she had herself faced in buying a house. Shatrudhan Sinha did not arrive at the TV studios, but he spoke to a reporter. He criticized Emraan Hashmi for raking up a minor issue despite the love and respect that he had received from his millions of Hindu fans.

In the debate on NDTV 24/7 Rajiv Pratap Rudy represented the Hindutva brigade. As usual, he was vociferous in putting forth his views and was unwilling to listen to anyone. “My way or the highway” syndrome! Salman Khurshid was seen treading the middle path. He seemed more concerned about appeasing vote banks, than in speaking the truth. There was Shahid Siddiqui, but he didn’t have much to offer, except clichés. In the Times Now debate Mahesh Bhatt was not ready to allow anyone else to speak. He kept going monotonously, daring viewers to switch off the channel. Supposedly his daughter Pooja is facing problem in getting some property transferred in her name.

But there was one thing missing from all the debates that were held on TV and the articles that appeared in the newspapers. No one bothered to take the opinion from the housing society. How difficult is it to send a reporter to Pali Hill? As of now, we only have Emraan Hashmi’s version of events - that he was denied a NOC by the Nibana Cooperative Society because he is a Muslim. But his own words make it clear that the members of the society didn’t say this to him directly. He claims that he has already paid rupees 1 lakh as token amount for the flat, but again there is no proof of his having done this. According to some sources, Hashmi has not paid anything to the flat owner.

In another twist to this alleged episode of religious profiling, a police complaint has been filed against the actor, accusing him of promoting enmity between different communities. The police complaint filed by Sanjay Bedia, a social activist and the executive member of BJP’s National Youth Committee, accuses Hashmi and filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt of various offences under IPC. The adverse publicity that this case has garnered forced M D Suvarna, the owner of the flat, which Emran Hashmi was planning to buy, to suddenly withdraw his offer. Suvarna claims that his son living in Canada has now changed his mind and does not want this flat to be sold.

Anyway, despite the thousands of words squandered on the issue, we still don’t have a coherent solution to the problem that ordinary Muslims and people of other religions and castes face while buying property. Emran Hashmi is a celebrity, he is a rich film star, and so he is going to have very less sympathy from the general public. After all, he has the financial muscle to buy a flat anywhere in the world. But what about the middle class Muslims? During the 1980s even the Sikh community faced a similar problem. There is also no dearth of groups, which do their best to keep Bengalis, Christians and other non-vegetarians out of their housing society.

But when the victim of discrimination is a middle class individual, our celebrity-obsessed media will not condescend to take notice. It may be harsh on Hashmi, but someone may ask where was he when others were discriminated or persecuted in his own city and backyard. However, there is no doubt that something has to be done to stop the rampant ghettoization of urban India. We should be having colonies where people from all parts of the country and of different religions can live together. Unfortunately, there is a tendency in most people to live in their own ghettoes; some do it willingly, while others are forced to do it.

By the way, Emran Hashmi can take solace from the fact that even if he didn’t bag the flat of his choice, he did manage to get awesome amount of free publicity. But for this controversy, people like me who don’t watch too many movies would never have learned about his existence.

Published in August 31, 2009 issue of Media Spectrum

Shekhar Gupta’s Walk the Talk

While talk shows might not be as fictional as any run of the mill Bollywood movie, they are definitely masterminded. The best talk shows, the ones that we like to watch, are always well choreographed. The general ambience of the studio matches the mood of the show. The hosts have an advance list of questions and issues that they are going to raise. The participants are coached and even the claps and the laughter are artificially induced. But there is one talk show in the firmament of Indian TV that at least tries to incorporate a degree of realism in its format. The name of that show is “Walk the Talk.”

By realism, I don’t mean that Shekhar Gupta is not planning the list of questions in advance or he is not trying to catch his celebrity guest from a camera angle that would be most interesting for the viewers of his program. I am just saying that, when he gets his guests to start walking as they talk, he does manage to make it appear as if nothing more than a simple conversation is being conducted. The guests and the interviewer are simply having a chat as they walk down the road or the garden. The lighting and the makeup too are quite subdued, so we actually get to see how the celebrity looks like in real life.

However, once in a while he does tend to get struck by a stroke of flamboyance and then he will shuttle his guest to some extraordinary location. When he was talking to George Fernandes, they took a walk on top of the Siachen Glacier, at 17,600 ft above mean sea level. Jagmohan got interviewed with the magnificent Taj Mahal in the background. The magisterial edifice of the North Block served as background for the episode where L K Advani was doing the talking. But majority of the shows in this program have been conducted on laidback and unfussy surroundings.

There is only one camera that follows Shekhar Gupta and his guest as they walk while talking and at times it is difficult for the lens man to capture both of them in a frame. There is no editing and there are no reshoots. But the most distinguishing feature of the program is the Shekhar Gupta’s demeanor. For a change, we have a host who has an authentic Indian dress sense. There are no Armani suits, Gucci boots, or flamboyant ties. The clever punch lines are missing. There is no show of overt aggression. The guests are seldom put in a tight spot and the general tenor of the program is conversational.

In fact, Walk the Talk is somewhat of a let down for viewers who have become used to watching talk shows conducted in the “tu-tu-mai-mai” format. Guests never get insulted in this program. Rather, Shekhar’s style is to gently let them drop their defenses and draw them out so that they end up revealing more about themselves and their agenda then they would to a more aggressive interviewer. The proof of the program’s success lies in the scoops that it has managed to unearth over the years. The lines spoken in the Walk the Talk episodes have often turned out to be breaking news material.

There was an episode where Amitabh Bachchan was nudged into speaking about his frosty ties with the Gandhi family. It was while walking in the program with Shekhar Gupta that the Kanchi Sankaracharya made sensational disclosures about his attempt to reach a negotiated settlement on the Ayodhya. These disclosures sent ripples through the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) during the time when Vajpayee was the prime minister. More recently Brajesh Mishra appeared in the show, where he said, “The RSS has to (introspect), election results were so disastrous that if you don’t make an assessment you will never recover.”

The Walk the Talk interview with George Soros was quite good in the sense that it succeeded in bringing out the philosophical side of the legendary investor. In answer to one question, Soros said, “Well the point is that all human constants relating to human affairs are imperfect. That is the human condition. That we are thinking participants. And in trying to think that…. we cannot gain the kind of knowledge than by studying the natural phenomenon. Because those natural phenomenon occur independently of what you think. But when it comes to human affairs, what you are thinking inherently influences the course of events.”

In the immediate aftermath of the fighting in Sri Lanka, when the dreaded leader of LTTE lost his life, there was a Walk the Talk interview with the president of the country. This is what Rajapaksa had to say, “The war is over, we should be together. To India’s Tamils, I will say that their brothers and sisters will be looked after by Mahinda Rajapaksa.” Even when Shekhar Gupta is inviting film stars to the show, the stars get portrayed in a rather thematic way. For instance, Shahrukh Khan was quizzed as a Muslim role model and Madhuri Dixit provided the opportunity to explore the sentiment of NRIs. The recent interview with Katrina Kaif was also quite entertaining.


Published in Media Spectrum (August 15, 2009 Issue)

NRI kills himself over fear of pink slip

Even if you go by his own words, 25-year-old Anjool Malde was “living a dream.” But in July this year, two days before his 25th birthday, he decided to end the dream, by leaping from a high-rise building. Style meant everything to him, and even while making a tryst with death, he wanted to be perfectly attired. He donned a Hugo Boss suit with matching designer accessories, walked past the Bank of England and entered the private elevator that took him to the luxurious 8th floor roof garden of Coq d’Argent. He ignored the offers of caviar, treated himself to a glass of champagne, went to the edge of the restaurant and jumped. As he fell down from the 8th floor, the last thing he saw were the offices of Britain’s richest and most successful financiers.

Why did someone who was so successful, so young and having such a good time, have to take his own life? The print media and TV media, in UK and in India, have already squandered many square inches of valuable space in dishing out a veritable barrage of speculation. One possible theory is that Anjool Malade killed himself because he was fearful of losing his high profile job at Deutsche Bank. The bank had already sacked three of his colleagues, and Anjool feared that he was going to be next. His sense of job security had taken a severe beating after he posed as one of his clients, and left a silly message on a financial website. The message read, “I am hot, I am hot.” This line was probably in reference to his client being on a successful investment run.

The client, who happened to be working for Brevan Howard, a leading hedge fund management firm, did not see the funny side and made a formal complaint to the company, which was running the discussion forum. The investigation that ensued suggested that Anjool had impersonated the client from his office computer at Deutsche Bank. This prompted the bank’s officials to send Anjool home pending a full investigation. But only two days after his partial suspension, Anjool had committed suicide. His colleagues at the bank believe that he was convinced that he would loose his job. So it seems as if Anjool killed himself because after living a dream for so many years, he was afraid of joining the list of unemployed.

The fantastic success that he had achieved through the years had done very little towards preparing him for the vagaries of life. He was a topper at Oxford University from where he completed his higher education. In the year 2005, he had bagged the Graduate of the Year award in UK. While at Oxford, his academic work covering education and black underachievement in UK and South Africa had been published by The Guardian and BBC News. He had even had the chance to interview the former President of South Africa FW de Klerk. He also had a short but noteworthy stint at BBC Radio Oxford, where he interviewed musicians including Geri Halliwell, Pharrell Williams, The Beatnuts and Killa Kela, and reviewed films, music and nightclubs.

He made enough money at Oxford to be able to pay the entire student loan that he had taken to fund his education. At Deutsche Bank his colleagues were expecting him to be promoted to the post of Vice President by the year 2010 which would have made him one of the youngest in the industry. Less than a month before his suicide, he had been ranked 7th out of 239 salespeople in his sector (Pan-European Small & Mid Caps) across all Investment Banks in Europe. Aside from being a prolific stockbroker at Deutsche Bank, Anjool was also a successful nightclub entrepreneur. Alpha Parties, the company that he had co-founded in 2006, had organized hundreds of events for young professional graduates, interns and students in London.

Before he committed suicide, he had already developed a blueprint for expanding the operations of Alpha Parties to places like New York. His close friends remember him as someone who was a real party animal. At every party, he would always be the first to walk into the dance floor and he would get everyone else in the room dancing as well. Recently Anjool had purchased a penthouse apartment in Marbella, Spain, where he was planning to spend several weeks partying with his friends this summer. But aside from his fear of losing his job, there was another event that had been tormenting him during the days leading up to his suicide – the death of Michael Jackson.

On 28th June, about a week before he took that fatal leap from the building’s 8th floor, he wrote a teary obituary in his Facebook profile for his favorite pop star. “Although I’m fortunate enough to have never lost anyone that close to me, I’ve always reacted to the passing away of people I’ve known with relative aloofness and lack of emotion. It may thus be treated with bemusement that I spent 24 hours perpetually teary-eyed upon hearing about the death of someone I’d never even met… Michael Jackson has provided the soundtrack to my life, and I’m sure tens of millions of others.” Could it be that Anjool look his own life because he could not bear the shock of Michael Jackson’s death?

Well, the truth is that it is difficult for any writer, including myself, to get away with speculating as to why a man committed suicide. But only Anjool knows for sure why he leaped off that building that day and he took that secret away with himself.


Published in Media Spectrum (August 15, 2009 Issue)